Category Archive

I had a little brainstorm today, (just a squall really, but on a significant topic.) I have osteoarthritis in hip and back (as well as EDS), and it’s been bothering me a lot of late.

Today as A was home we were talking about how I’ve been feeling for the past few weeks. And I told her that several weeks ago I was doing great, was even walking without a cane for the first time in ages.

And it hit me – that was right when I had a bad bee sting that left a big load of bee venom in my left leg (the one affected by the arthritis) as I was stung dealing with a hive that tilted over.

The following couple of weeks I was practically dancing about, at the Chiro we celebrated, because I was walking without my cane.

Then this past week with all the rain we’ve been having, I’ve been struggling again. Really bad pain a couple of times, *really* bad. Like, 11 on a scale of one to ten.

And it hit me this morning, could the bee sting have caused me to improve enough to walk without the cane? I haven’t been stung in several weeks, and any venom in my system would have worn off.

So I called my friend G, a longtime beekeeper, who had spoken to me of apitherapy several months ago, before I was diagnosed with EDS and thought I had fibromyalgia. He said apitherapy worked to relieve fibro, and that all came back in a flood today.

I was due to go out and check on the bees today anyway, so I took a small jar (with holes in the lid) along with me, and scooped up three worker bees as I was out there. I then put them in the fridge for about an hour to slow them down enough to work with.

Sadly, when honeybees sting, they die, as the stinger is pulled from their bodies. That part makes me feel pretty wretched. But I also know that when my pain gets this bad, I can barely cope with much of anything, so I felt I needed to ask for their sacrifice to help me regain my health.

As G had instructed, I took then then-chilled bees out of the fridge, and put them on a smooth plate, leaving the small glass jar over two as I waited for one to wake back up. When she did, I grasped her by the thorax, and tried to get her to sting me, to no avail for some time. Finally, A handed me a piece of paper towel which I used to hold the bee against my hip, and huzzah, she stung me!

Now, who’d have thought I’d be glad to be stung by a bee. That sounds so silly. But there is a long history of apitherapy as natural medicine. And since I do have bees now, why not use it to heal myself?!

I gave myself three stings, and G says it can take up to three days to feel the effects, but I am already so relieved and feeling better just mentally to think I have something I can do to deal with this pain that doesn’t involve some $200 a month prescription for a med which doesn’t really work well enough anyway.

Time will tell. I’m going to blog to see how long this will last, and how often I need to re-apply the venom. Some people are apparently cured after only several treatments! And apitherapy apparently works wonders for MS too, according to Dr. Google.

I gave thanks to each of the dear bees as they stung me, and then put them out of their misery once the stinger came out. I didn’t want them to suffer. And I am so grateful! Having bees is so wonderful on so many levels, and as A said “I’ve been surrounded by natural medicine all my life, this feels so normal!”